Guest Blogger Donna Gephart: 6 1/2 Thoughts on Marketing & Promotion

Now that I’ve sold three novels, I wish I could talk to myself when my first book came out.  I’d tell myself:

“Stop freaking out! People will read the book.  You will get amazing e-mails from young fans, teachers, librarians and old boyfriends.  You will even win a couple lovely awards.” 

           

To you, dear reader, I say, “Do what feels comfortable.  Say, “Yes” a lot.  Let people know about your book and about you as a speaker, then move on and write the next book.  If contemplating marketing and promoting gives you hives, think about the process as connecting and giving.”

  

Here are some examples from my experience that may be helpful:

School Visits:

When a friend told me a local middle school library was desperately in need of books, I gathered a bag of books our kids were not using as well as copies of my two novels and headed over there.  

The librarian and I hit it off immediately.  She was friendly and enthusiastic and really appreciated the donation of books.  When she found out I did school visits, she invited me to give a (paid) presentation to the entire sixth grade class (about 400 students) and sign books at the school’s book fair.

  

A win for both of us.

Since that time, I’ve gone in to help her encourage reluctant readers to find books they’ll enjoy.

           

Media Attention:

A friend, Janeen Mason, suggested I contact her friend, Marilyn Bauer, who writes a local arts column blog for an area newspaper.

Marilyn is lovely!  After she wrote about me, a reporter from that paper read my novel, How to Survive Middle School, enjoyed it and wrote a review in the newspaper, saying my book was good for both children and adults.  (He even posted the review on Amazon.)

A parent read that review and told her group about me when they were looking for a keynote speaker for an event they were hosting.  I spoke to that group about surviving parenting a middle schooler.

           

 Another time, I wrote to a local reporter, telling her how much I enjoy her weekly “Meet Your Neighbor” feature.  I’d been reading and enjoying it for years.  The reporter asked if I’d consider being featured in the newspaper.

Of course I agreed.  

After that article came out, I was contacted by several area schools about author visits.

Blogging:

I’ve been blogging since 2007. 

A favorite feature is my 6-1/2 list – a cleverly disguised guest blog.  Here are a few examples:

1.  Erin Murphy and author Audrey Vernick give great tips about how to elevate quiet books. 

2.  Cynthia Leitich Smith discusses How to Promote Your Book Like a Pro 

3.  Cynthia Lord shares tips on creating great school visits.

Don’t blog in a vacuum.  Follow and comment on other blogs.  Doing guest blog posts is a great idea because it gives you the opportunity to connect with new readers.  Thanks, Robin!

Your Book is Your Best Promotion Tool:

When you hear the advice, “Write the best book you can,” there’s a reason.  Once your book comes out, it must stand on its own merits.  Take my word for it, you’ll be glad you spent that extra time revising. 

  

 My first book, As if Being 12 ¾ Isn’t Bad Enough, My Mother is Running for President! had a lot of support from Random House.  They flew me to Philadelphia to meet with influential librarians at a cocktail party during ALA.  They promoted the book in print.  They even gave out “Vote for Mom” buttons at a few large shopping malls across the country.

           

With all that support from Random House plus all my promotional efforts, the book did NOT break any sales records.

             

But instead of spending all my time and energy promoting that book, I did exactly what I was supposed to do.  I wrote the next book.

ARCs of How to Survive Middle School were sent to reviewers by Random House.  That’s it.  I sent out an e-mail letting people know my book was out.  And not a whole lot more.

Guess what?

How to Survive Middle School got starred reviews right out of the gate.  It landed on the Texas Lone Star Reading List.  

Before long, I got the happy news that it had gone into its FIFTH printing and sold out its advance.  And it hasn’t even been out a year.

That had very little to do with what I or Random House did to promote it.

It was the book not than the promotion that made those things happen.

So, here are my 6-1/2 tips for you: 

1.  Write the best book you can.

2.  Spend as much time as needed to revise and polish your book. 

3.  Instead of thinking about what you’d like to get (book sales), think about what you can give -- your time, advice, expertise, etc. 

4.  Connect in ways that feel comfortable and meaningful.  Blogs, FB, Twitter, school visits, library workshops, articles for magazines – whatever works for you.

5.  Don’t be shy.  Let your friends, family and colleagues know about how excited you are about your new book.  Give out your business cards liberally.  Include your book and Web site/blog information in your signature line on every e-mail you send out. 

6.  If you’re introverted, get thee to Shrinking Violet Promotions. (Ha! We didn't even pay her to say that!)

6-1/2.  Here’s the most important advice.  My agent reminds me of it every now and again.  Don’t get so caught up in worrying about sales and marketing and promotion that you neglect to do the most important thing for a long, healthy writing career:  WRITE THE NEXT BOOK.

Donna Gephart tries to remember to WRITE THE NEXT BOOK from her home in South Florida.  Her newest book, Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen, about a girl determined to get on the TV quiz show, Jeopardy!, comes out in 2012.  Visit Donna online at www.donnagephart.com.

Marketing Schmarketing: Thoughts on Language for Introverts

Howdy-do from Texas,

Hope you all are doing well! Things have improved dramatically for me since I've been reconnected to the internet. Hot dog! My poor little ET heart light was waning. I was in dire need of some e-juice. Phew, got plugged back in just in the nick of time.

I've had a lot of time on my hands this past week to consider the meaning of the universe, strange Fall fashion trends, and why I still shudder at the M-Word. Here is what I've come up with. You see, the word marketing just holds no appeal for me. I can't think of a single connotation that I find alluring, sexy, or even interesting.

Stock market? Shudder. Grocery market? Must I, really? Meat market? Gee, I'll pass. Farmer's Market? Must they flaunt their Brussel Sprouts (aka tiny alien heads) at me? Book Marketing? Yick!

You see where all this is going, don't you? We need some *new* language around this, coupled with fresh, shiny images. And, they won't be the same for all of us. As we've learned over these past months together, though we belong to the same tribe, introverts are a diverse group. Some of us love to teach and speak to crowds, but run shrieking at the phone or doorbell ringing (uh, that would be me). Some of us can't imagine speaking to both our dentist and her hygienist at the same time, but can happily while away hours on the phone.

I've learned a lot doing buddy book signings with Robin, and one of the things I most admire is her "pitch"-- her ability to summarize her book into one or two sentences. She does so in a way that reaches out and embraces her potential reader. She focuses on how the book might meet their needs vs. how cool the book is. She is able to adjust her synopsis a widge each time so that it makes sense to whomever she is speaking to, be it a child, a parent, or a teacher. It feels fresh and personal each and every time. I'm reay to whip out my wallet and buy another copy by the time she's done.

At times, my pitch can sound like an apology, or perhaps as if I've never actually read the book. Truly! I have the dardest time with it. I need to tip the focus off me and my insecurities. To do that requires that I come to terms with the quality of my work. Did I write the best book I possibly could at the time? If so, and my editor liked it enough to publish it, I'm going to go with its assumed value.

In all other areas of my life, if I have something of value, I always want to share it with others. Why should it be different with my books? When I make cookies, I make enough for the greater tri-counties area. In my coaching practice, I am confident that I'm good at it, and I feel comfortable inviting people to hire me.

Here is the shift that I'm making that I challenge you to consider. If the terms marketing and promotion cause sweat to run down your inner thighs, call it something else. We know that words are beyond powerful. Change a word, change your world. So, I'm moving from marketing to connecting and from promotion to sharing. I feel skilled at both of these activities, and they both feel tied to a higher purpose than sales.

I believe in the power of children's literature to catapult a child into a new realm of being. If I'm lucky enough to be one of the voices in the field, and I believe in my work, what a waste not to share it. What a missed opportunity if I don't try to connect with others while I have the air time.

So what about you? There are many, many components to marketing. Can you isolate an area(s) of strength and expertise? What about changing the language to something that excites and motivates you? What else can you call marketing? Or promotion? Or pitching (for god's sake)? How about something less corporate than networking? And I'm not thrilled with anything that ends with 'campaign'--ideas on that?

And, please, anything more humane than branding? In fact, I hate that one so much that I'm attaching a **PRIZE** to anyone that comes up with a good replacement for that. And platforms are good for shoes, but can we find a better way to describe one's area of expertise?

Robin and I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Grab your creativity and come on over!

0"~]

Mary Hershey

Write Big

When we think about marketing, we tend to get so focused on the idea of marketing our book to the reading public, that we forget that there is a marketing task that comes well before that, and it is even more important in the great scheme of things: marketing oneself to the publisher.

Now, that sounds kind of scary, and if you were applying for a sales job or something in upper management, it would be scary. Luckily, as authors, our books will make up about 85% of our marketing efforts. Which is why writing the very best book you can is one of our top marketing focuses here at SVP.

This very concept was re-enforced for me at RWA, where I had the opportunity to hear Shauna Summers, a Senior Editor at Bantam, speak. She was adamant that writers should absolutely allow themselves to write outside the box—but only if that’s where the story took them. She did not recommend it just for the sake of being “out there.”

She said you gain nothing by being small. She sees lots of manuscripts that are good--not--great. She wants great.

She mentioned the very real danger of having one’s manuscript critiqued and workshopped to death, so that every last spark of freshness and originality is lost. You can’t please every reader, not even in your critique group, and if you try, you risk eradicating that very thing that makes your special and will allow it to stand out (market itself) to the editor.

So you got that, Vi’s? Go forth and create—BIG—outside the box.

And lastly, I have a huge Bonus Marketing Tip hot from the conference.

One of the Very Big Name Editors said that, in her opinion, pitching appointments were an absolute waste of time, especially when you considered how stressful they were for everyone concerned. She had never bought anything from a pitch appointment and tried to steer clear of them as she could tell more from a good query than a pitch. What a relief! So while, yes, it's a great excerise to be able to distill your book into a pithy short blurb, you don't actually have to verbally pitch it in order to succeed in publishing.

::introverts everywhere heave a great big sigh of relief::

Comfort Level Inventory

I haven't even confessed to Robin yet-- well, until now, that against my better judgement, I went ahead and agreed to a particular school visit as part of my pre-launch plan that we both agreed was pushing the limits for this card-carrying introvert.

Remember the Comfort Level Inventory she presented to help us decide what marketing activities work best for us? The categories were:

FEELS COMFORTABLE
COULD GET USED TO IT
DEFINITELY UNCOMFORTABLE
COLD DAY IN HELL

Then she gave us a long list of activities to consider in the development of our marketing plan. Things like radio interviews, internet interviews, television, postcard mailing, press releases, teaching, message boards, book signings, school classroom visits, school ASSEMBLY visits-- (sound of me choking on that last one). We were to assign the various activities to the categories above. She gave us permission to stay in Feels Comfortable and Could Get Used To It. She's nice that way.

I do a lot of public speaking in my work and while I still get clammy pits, once I get going, I usually enjoy it. I love teaching, especially adults. The only activity that hit the COLD DAY IN HELL was talking to an Assembly of the wee ones.

So, it follows that I went ahead and agreed to do this. Wha-a-a-t?? To very, very many children. Of very, very many ages. (And, just in case their principal is reading this-- Oh, hi! I can't wait! Wheee! It is going to be so much fun! And, um, could you please stop reading now and go to an urgent meeting or something?)

Help! This is a classic example of me trying to be paisley when you'd think I'd learned by now that I'm polka-dotted. Both sides, top and bottom, too. I might as well stick a high voltage energy-sucking cable right to my brain and throw the switch to Total Melt-down Mode.

Stand back, friends, I'm buzzing through a few fingernails here. Hold on while I go get a brown paper bag to help me breathe.

Okay, better. Actually breathing now. Big sigh. You know, I have a wise friend that says "Don't anticipate pain." Same could be said, I suppose, for all sort of things we dread. Don't anticipate chaos, or mayhem, or failure. I've got to stay in present. Hey, maybe by the time the date rolls around, I'll be in jail or something, and I'll have a really good excuse for not showing up. I could just get lucky.

Before I forget, don't forget to vote on whether you like Ms. Viola's *new* look, or like the pre-makeover version. She's waiting, desperate to hear from you. Email me your vote and you'll be entered in the drawing to win a great marketing book called Plug Your Book! by Steve Weber. Last day you can enter is this Thursday, January 31st.

Back to work on Marketing Plan for now. Adding a note on Assembly Day entry to take books, postcards and several brown paper bags.

Later, friends,

Mary

To Blog or Not to Blog...

That is the question most writers are faced with at some point in time. Should they invest the time and energy into a blog so they can connect with their readers? Or simply spend the time writing or pursuing other promotional activities.

For one, even though we’re introverts, we are comfortable writing (or so I’m guessing, otherwise we wouldn’t be you know--writers) so using the written word whenever possible to do our promoting for us is always smart. Even smarter, doing it from the relative “call your own shots” environment of the internet. Because, to restate one of our mottos around here, The internet is an introvert's best friend.

So how does one decide?

Do you like chatting? Do you have things to chat about, besides what you had for breakfast that morning and whether or not you were late dropping Petunia off at school? Because if you’re a writer who’s blogging, your blog will also be a professional representation of who you are, not just a personal diary.

Blogs are not about you, they're about what you can give your audience. The very best blogs inform as they entertain. What “takeaway” element are you giving your readers?

And speaking of audiences, who do you expect to read your blog? Fellow writers? Readers? Librarians? Kids? And whoever you’re intended audience, how do you plan to attract readers to your blog in the first place?

Remember, blogs aren’t always about promoting; they can be about building a community, sharing common interests, connecting with people, offering a service.

What will keep your readers coming back? What is your purpose in having them come back (besides having your site meter register high numbers)?

Even if your blog has a relatively small readership, don’t make a mistake of thinking it’s a place to say private things. Anything you say in any e-form can always find it’s way into the most unexpected hands! If you know that you don't tend to self-censor very well, then perhaps a public forum isn't your best choice.

While you really don’t have to blog every day, it helps to be consistent at least. Say, every Monday and Thursday, for example. (Don’t look at my personal blog because it is a very good example of NOT being consistent OR regular. Do what we say here at SVP, not necessarily what we do.)

Still not sure? Give it a try, but perhaps anonymously. Or simply practice in a word document and save your entries. See how that goes before you commit fully to a blog. You might just find yourself addicted.

Or not. And that's okay, too, because one of our other favorite mottos around here is "Know thyself."

Having a Marketing Plan

When you get a group of authors together and give them all a drink, one of the first topics to come up will be marketing. Specifically, the difficulty of getting marketing commitments from their publisher. With over 5,000 books published every year, clearly something needs to happen to make any given book stand out—thus marketing.

But to be fair, publishers have a limited amount of time, manpower, and marketing dollars to go around. With anywhere from ten to fifty books on each season’s list, prioritizing and budgeting are key. So what can a new author, or any author, do to help ensure their book gets a piece of the publishers marketing pie?

I think one of the most important steps an author can take is to demonstrate to the publisher that they are willing to be a partner in the marketing of their book. That they understand that both author and publisher have to work together to get this book into the hands of readers, that it must be a joint effort.

However, this can be really hard for introverts, as the mere thought of promotion tends to send us running for a bottle of antacid.

But we’ve demonstrated over the last few months that there are a number of things introverts can do that don’t require extroverted behavior or bold marketing moves but can still be effective in getting the word out to about their book. Armed with all the information you’ve learned here (and other places) I highly suggest you put together a marketing plan for your book.

In you marketing plan, you list the things you’re comfortable doing, you play to your strengths, and demonstrate your commitment. It’s a great opportunity to show how much you are willing to do to make this new partnership between you and your publisher a success.

Understand that a marketing plan is NOT a demand letter with the author stating all the things they want/expect the publisher to do for them.

It’s a statement of everything the author is planning to do to market their book, along with a few suggestions for joint promotion or marketing opportunities with your publisher.

So one of your tasks is to sit down and think what a brand spanking new (introverted) author like yourself brings to the table.

Your writing, which they’ve already shown they believe in. Your willingness to succeed, your enthusiasm and hopefully a small army of enthusiastic supporters—friends, family, fellow authors, the librarian you chatted up while doing your research, your child’s third grade teacher who found out you were writing a children’s book, your cousins, your local indie bookseller, where you’ve bought your books for years and are friendly with the staff, your small town newspaper or alumni newsletter, or church bulletin that’s always looking for bits of news to publish. (Remember, no book is as highly celebrated as a first book. It’s a momentous occasion and people will love celebrating that moment with you.)

Or perhaps you already have a couple of books out. In that case, you have a few more contacts to build upon.

An introverted marketing plan might include the following:

Create author website*
Feature contests and giveaways on author blog
Arrange blog tour with following popular blogs (then list them)
Print and mail 500 post cards to local schools, libraries, independent booksellers, and personal acquaintances.
Press kit mailing to local print media
Have promotional items made (this would be something that could tie in with your book in a clever way, like temporary tattoos, personalized pencils with the book title on it, magnets, etc.)

*Ideally you should have this up and running a few months before the publication date. It’s the #1 most important marketing tool you can have.

Not sure what else to put on the plan? Check back here to remind yourself which tasks you’re comfortable with.

Pimpin'

For a lot of introverts, the absolute hardest part of marketing is trying to get the gig itself, the school visit, speaking engagement, newspaper article, whatever. It’s trying to talk people into booking you that’s the really hard part. The selling of oneself.

So here’s a suggestion: Don’t sell yourself, sell your buddies. And have your buddies sell you.

It’s called a co-op, and for introverts, it can be a wonderful way to operate in the promotional world.

Now, being introverts, you may be thinking, but I’m a solitary writer, how can I form a co-op?

The truth is, there are a number of natural groupings you fall into that might work.

Do you have a critique group?
A local chapter of SCBWI?
Perhaps you could pool together with other authors that write for your publisher?
Or other clients of your agent?

Maybe you just have three or four scattered writer friends, but hey, that’s enough to start an informal co-op.

It works especially well if the different member have different strengths and comfort zones. Perhaps one of the group is very comfortable around kids and enjoys school visits. Maybe another one is really comfortable teaching writing workshops, and a third is quite internet savvy, and the fourth was an administrative assistant in a marketing department a long time ago in a land far away.

So you pool your resources and talents. When the rest of you get school visit requests that you don’t want to act on, hand them over to the member of our group who does. Or maybe one of you is a picture book writer, who’s been asked to speak at a middle school—not natural pairing, so refer the school to the tween author in your group. There’s all sorts of natural divisions of labor promotion than can be handled by a group that are too intimidating when faced all alone. Consider:

• Posting online reviews for each others books on Amazon and B&N.com
• If you have a blog, make sure and blog about your co-op members new books when they come out.
• If you’re approached for a booksigning, suggest to the store a group signing, which is more fun for the author and the store.
• If one of the co-op has a new book, consider writing a press release for them, or taking a copy of their new book to your local librarian.

I’m sure you guys can think of other ways to do promote books you love. (Feel free to add them in the comments!)

Another way to form a group is through a secondary interest. Maybe you know a handful of other humor writers, or fantasy writers, or historical fiction authors. Consider forming a group blog where you can all participate in building a community based on that secondary interest.

And here's one of the beauties of the co-op system. If you’re in a critique group or local writers group together, or clients of the same agent or publisher, chances are there will be genuine admiration for each others work, so everything that you do to promote your fellow member will flow from a genuine place.

And it won't be about you.